These apps can help you stay healthy and active at work

Admin| Mar 21, 2017 - 11:48 PM
India

Most people today have desk-­bound jobs. However, that does not mean you cannot be active in the work area. Here are some free apps you can use to do quick exercises without going too far from your work station.

USING A SMARTPHONE/TABLETSTRETCHING EXERCISES Stretching is the easiest and quickest of exercises that can be done at your desk. Check out the 1­minute desk workout app for iOS by Simarim. The app has over 45 exercises to keep you active at your desk and even sends a reminder every hour to do an exercise. Android users can try the Stretch Exercises by IMOBLIFE INC. app that offers over 40 stretching sorted in categories for exercising various body parts.

QUICK BREAKS One of the most common tips to avoid strain injuries or back problems is to take regular breaks during work. While you can set your smartphone’s alarm clock to remind you at even hours to take breaks, there are also free apps available to notify you to take breaks. Check out the reMind Alarm clock and Break Reminder for Android while iOS users can try the free Alarmed app to set multiple alarms as break reminders.

YOGA There are multiple benefits of doing yoga and not all yoga exercises require you to arrange for a large space to move around. If you are interested in doing yoga at your desk, check the Office Yoga: At Your Desk app that is available for iOS (US$ 2.99). It shows a 3D yoga instructor video that you can follow. Android users can try the free Daily Yoga app along with its Office Yoga to De­Stress plug­in.

TAKE CARE OF YOUR EYES Most of our work now requires use of a display, which strains our eyes. Instead of just lowering brightness levels, get an app that works as a blue light filter. The blue light from your device screen is the main reason for eye strain and can lead to insomnia and headaches.

Android users can use the Bluelight filter app or the Twilight app—both adjust the screen colour to reduce the blue light effect. Apple has baked a low light filter mode in IOS already.

ON YOUR COMPUTERFOR YOUR EYES F.lux is a free program available for Windows, MAC as well as Linux computers that automatically adjusts colour temperature of your screen according to the time of day. You must configure it to your locations so that it can work according to the time of the day and it really helps reduce eye strain. There are even options to choose from pre­set colour effect (dark room, movie mode) and you can even disable the program to work for certain apps where you do not want colour temperature adjustment.

IMPROVE POSTURE Sitting on a chair in wrong posture is one of the prime reason for backache and cervical pains. MAC users can get the free Posture Man Pat app (http://www. soundplusdesign.com/?p=3548) that uses your computer’s webcam to track your face on Y­axis of your screen. When your face drops down to an incorrect posture it warns you by sounding an alarm. Another app called Nekoze also warns you of incorrect posture by tracking your face via the webcam by showing a cat that meows at you for changing posture.

BREAK REMINDERS An issue with most organisations today is that users are not allowed to install anything on the work computer. This is where you can use a web-­based timer to take breaks. Open www.protectyourvision.org on a web browser—you can choose to be alerted about a 20­second break every 20 minutes (or a 5­minute break every hour) on the page and suggests eye exercises to reduce eye strain. In case you cannot keep the site open always in a browser tab, you can install a browser extension. Chrome users can get the Strick Workflow extension while Firefox users can use the Take a break plug­in.

In case your office system does let you install software, you can get Eyeleo (http://eyeleo.com) or the BigStretch app (http://monkeymatt.com/bigstretch) for Windows. Both remind you to take a break every 10 minutes and even suggests exercises. MAC users can get the Time Out or from the Mac App Store for similar function.